Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc crashed into each other as Ferrari’s miserable start to the new Formula One season took another twist on Sunday.
Leclerc, starting in 14th, attempted to overtake Vettel, four places ahead of him on the grid, at the third corner on the opening lap, but instead collided with his team-mate.
The force of the impact ripped the rear wing off Vettel’s car and he was forced to retire at the end of the first lap.
Following a short safety car period, Leclerc attempted to carry on, but he was unable to continue due to the damage sustained in the accident.
Leclerc tweeted: “I am disappointed in myself. I’m sorry but being sorry is not enough. Seb hasn’t got any faults today.
“I’ve let the team down after them working a whole week to bring the updates early. Too eager to gain those places in the first lap. I will learn from it.”
The crash marks the second time in four races that the two Ferrari drivers have collided with each other.
Vettel was largely blamed for that incident in Brazil, but here it was Leclerc who misjudged the corner, causing the impact with his team-mate.
Vettel finished 10th in last week’s opener in Austria after spinning while he duelled for position with McLaren’s Carlos Sainz.
The four-time world champion will leave Ferrari at the end of the season after the Italian team opted against renewing his contract.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here